


Quarantined

by 31stella



Category: Figure Skating RPF
Genre: Buckle up, COVID-19, F/M, Pandemics, Quarantine
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-01
Updated: 2020-06-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:48:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,775
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23941852
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/31stella/pseuds/31stella
Summary: Tessa finds herself quarantined for fourteen days with the wrong person in a location she wasn’t supposed to be in
Relationships: Morgan Rielly/Tessa Virtue, Scott Moir/Tessa Virtue
Comments: 29
Kudos: 92





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is a work of fiction based on current events. All mistakes are my own.

Fourteen days.

That’s two weeks.

Or three-hundred thirty-six hours.

Or twenty-thousand one-hundred sixty minutes. 

Not that she’s counting.

Fourteen days.

That’s half her menstrual cycle.

Fourteen days.

She’s been that far out from a skating competition and knows how it can feel like an eternity while simultaneously flying by. But this was different.

Fourteen days.

That’s how long quarantine was to last.

Fourteen hours.

That’s how long it’s been since her day took a severe left turn.

* * *

  
  


Scott was completely shocked to see Tessa Virtue of all people enter Moir’s Skate Shop that afternoon.

“Well look what the wind blew in!” he chuckled as he stood up. He felt a sense of contentment to see her in person for the first time in months, even though their relationship was no longer what it once was. Deep down he still felt that she completed him in ways no one else ever would. 

“Hey stranger,” she said softly, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. She couldn’t not smile at the ecstatic grin on his face; it was as infectious as always. Even when she was mad at him, his smile always broke her mood the way no one else’s ever could.

Scott watched her eyes quickly scan the large open space. He was there alone, but he would let her come to that conclusion herself. He wanted to just look at her. To drink her up with his eyes and get his fill until the next time. She was as beautiful as always, but he could see the tired, hollow look in her eyes. She definitely wasn’t sleeping, and she wasn’t...fulfilled? Or perhaps something was bothering her? He couldn’t quite put his finger on it.

“How’ve ya been?” he finally asked, stepping out from behind the counter where he had been digging through some cardboard boxes that he had been storing at the shop. 

Scott didn’t wait for an answer. He crossed the room and walked towards where she stood, just barely inside the doorway. It was like a magnetic force pulling him towards her and he was unable to stop himself once his legs started moving, his brain seemingly turned off. Like old habit, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and pulled her tight against his body, her face pressing into his chest and her arms trapped at her sides. She let out a surprised squeak, she hadn’t expected that warm of a welcome given the circumstances of their present relationship, but she relaxed as his familiar yet somehow different scent washed over her. He changed his soap again, she mused. If she was counting, which she was, this was number four since—

“I’m well,” she mumbled into his sweatshirt, stopping herself from pondering too long on what was done and closed. “You?”

Scott realized the death grip he had on her and took in another lung full of her unmistakably Tessa scent before loosening his hold slightly.

“You know we probably shouldn’t—”

Scott immediately let go and held her at arms length, his fingers tightly wrapped around her wrists. “No one else is here, Tee—”

“I meant social distancing? Covid-19?”

“Oh, oh, right, right.” Scott dropped his arms to his sides and took another step back from Tessa. He had missed the weight of her in his hands, more so than he had realized until she was back within reach. He had honestly been looking forward to reconnecting with Tessa on ice for Worlds and to skate together again, one more ‘last time’. “Sorry,” he whispered, scratching his fingers through his hair.

She noticed he was growing it out again, and the greys sprinkled through, but what caught her most off guard was his beard. It was sparse, he had never been able to grow a full face, but the amount of white and silver whiskers aged him significantly. 

“So, what brings you by, Tee?”

“Oh, well, I was just taking care of a few errands before I hunker down with ...” 

Her voice trailed off and her eyes flitted to the side, away from his gaze. Scott knew who she meant. Her fancy Toronto Maple Leafs boyfriend, Morgan Rielly. Scott’s jaw clenched for a moment, but she started talking again and he relaxed at the sound of her voice. 

“I don’t know for how long, I guess until this virus runs its course, but I’m here because I really needed to get these sharpened before Worlds,” she admitted sheepishly as she held up her skates.

Scott looked at the white boots with the fuzzy pink soakers covering the blades. He had been so fixated on Tessa that he hadn’t even noticed them in her hand.

“I was going to have them done in Montreal, but with things being cancelled ...” 

Her voice trailed off again as her mind wandered to all the scenarios that had been running through her head in the last few weeks. They hadn’t seen each other since their tour wrapped last November and they were supposed to skate for the opening ceremony at the World Figure Skating Championships in Montreal. When she received the email about the cancellation, the huge knot in her stomach dissolved, but a new one grew in its place with worry over when she might see him next. She had driven to his family’s skate shop in Komoka on a whim, hoping that he might be there, and her instincts did not let her down.

“I’d offer to get those done while you wait, but...” Scott sighed, stuffing his hands in his pockets. He wasn’t great at operating the machine, if you asked him. His uncle would strongly disagree with Scott.

“Oh there’s no rush, Scott. I figured I’d leave these here to be done and I’ll grab them once things calm down.”

“Yeah, this is something, eh? I flew back this morning and—” 

“Wait. What?” she gasped. She hadn’t known he was away, but she probably should have assumed as much. 

“Huh?” Scott was confused at what she was getting excited about. 

“You just got back from where?” Tessa demanded, her eyes filled with a fiery rage that Scott had not seen since, well since she confronted him in September about their ... divorce.

“Florida? Jackie had the week booked off and since we weren’t going to Montreal anymore, we got a great rate at a resort down there. I guess a lot of people were cancelling or something? Anyways, she’s back at work now so I flew back here to get some stuff done at the house.”

Tessa took two steps back from Scott. “So then what are you doing here? At the shop I mean.”

“Well when I landed at the airport, I had to promise the government that I would quarantine myself for fourteen days. So I stopped in here to get some books I was storing at the shop, before heading over to her parents’ place,” Scott admitted nonchalantly.

Tessa’s mind was reeling at his potentially reckless abandon and lackadaisical attitude towards the pandemic.

“Scott.”

He wrinkled his brow, not understanding why it seemed like Tessa was fuming mad at him for being at the shop he co-owned. Exasperated with her sudden change in attitude, he sighed out her name in response.

Tessa sighed loudly at his sigh as she walked back and forth in front of the entrance to the skate shop. She took several deep breaths to calm herself down and to not yell at her former skating partner. “Scott, you were supposed to go straight home from the airport, not make pit stops ... and you should absolutely not be staying with Jackie’s parents!”

“Well where the hell am I supposed to stay?” he shouted back at her, much louder than he intended, but she had made him mad. “And why do you care so much all of a sudden?”

“I care because I still—” Tessa stopped herself abruptly as she came to a stark realization. “You’ve potentially infected me now.”

“What?” he cried out. “Infected with what?”

“You hugged me and we were standing closer than two metres.”

“Tessa,” Scott groaned, running his fingers through his hair and as he too began pacing back and forth. “You’re making a big deal out of nothing.”

“I most certainly am not. The novel corona virus is highly contagious and very serious. I’ve been doing a lot of reading up on it you know,” she insisted in her famous matter-of-fact tone that Scott loathed.

“Of course you have,” Scott mumbled, walking away from her to give them more physical space.

“You could be a carrier even if you are not symptomatic. You cannot stay with her parents ... or yours, and risk infecting them as well. What about your house, can you stay there?”

Scott shrugged and turned around to look at her. “No furniture in it. No bed or couch to sleep on and no fridge for food. I hadn’t gotten around to dealing with that yet.”

Of course not, she thought to herself. Tessa was quiet for several moments, thinking through their options. If she was now possibly infected, there was no way she wanted to risk making her mom or Morgan sick. Kate was in the high-risk age group and Tessa’s boyfriend was under strict orders from the team management and coaching staff to isolate.

“You’ll just have to quarantine with me,” she insisted, plunking a hand on one hip to accentuate her point.

“Tee. There is no way in hell that I’m gonna shack up with you and Rielly for two weeks!” The mere thought of having to listen to them fuck in the bedroom beside his made him want to cut his ears off like that painter guy Tessa often droned on about, or jump off a bridge ... or something equally as dramatic.

“No,” she sighed. “Just me. I can’t risk exposing Morgan. He has to stay healthy in case the NHL figures out a way to get this season going again. We were going to charter a flight out to Vancouver and stay at his house there—”

Scott rolled his eyes. He knew he was being childishly jealous but he didn’t want to hear about Mister Millionaire and his chartered private flights and multiple houses. Scott crossed his arms over his chest and kicked his shoe at the wood floor. “Fine,” he eventually huffed in agreeance. 

  
  


* * *

  
  


Begrudgingly, Scott followed Tessa out to her cottage. He had grumbled at her insistence that he was under strict instructions to go straight there if they got separated for some reason. He considered bailing several times, and almost made an unauthorized pit stop at the liquor store for some much-needed libations, but he knew the wrath of one Tessa Jane McCormick Virtue was no longer a thing to test. The miniature civil war they had been battling since the summer of 2018 had proved that he was indeed the current loser of the game. Tessa seemed to always win.

However, he was on the ball enough to notice that her eyes were puffy and red from crying as they got out of their respective vehicles upon arrival at their destination. He was about to crack a joke, but she sniffed her now runny nose and he held his tongue. He had fucked up her plans and did feel bad that she was stuck with him of all people for the next fourteen days. He knew better than anyone how much of a moody asshole he himself could be. Scott grabbed his own bags from the back of his truck and followed her wordlessly inside the cottage. He hated the word cottage for Tessa’s lakeside house. Cottages were quaint and dark. This was grandiose and very white. 

“You can take one of these rooms here,” she directed as they entered the cottage. 

Scott looked left and then right, in the directions she was simultaneously pointing. 

“I’d recommend this one, window is less drafty.” Tessa tapped her hand on the doorframe and continued walking. “I’ll be staying upstairs.”

With that she disappeared and Scott was left to select his room. Tessa was being far too bossy for his liking, so Scott went with the opposite of her recommendation, feeling defiant, and assuming the larger of the two rooms would be better if he truly was stuck here for fourteen days. He rolled his suitcase into the room and laid his jacket neatly on top before flopping his body onto the perfectly made up queen-sized bed. The walls were white, the furniture was white and the bedding was white. Might as well be in a mental institution, he groaned to himself. 

He laid face down on the bed for a while, not really thinking about anything in particular, simply listening to the unfamiliar sounds of his new surroundings. He must have fallen asleep at some point as the incessant buzzing of his cell phone dragged him harshly out of a dream he was having about lying on a beach in Florida, next to an alligator who was sipping on a pink cocktail.

“Hey, baby,” he answered, his throat dry as cotton from his nap.

Scott’s fiancée, Jackie, had finished her day shift in the Emergency Room at the hospital and was currently driving home. She chatted for several minutes about her wide assortment of patients and the lack of face masks before letting Scott get in more than two words. When he finally had the opportunity to fill her in on his unfortunate choices and where and with whom he would be staying for the next fourteen days, Jackie was less than thrilled. She began whining that he could have gotten a hotel room or slept in his truck and how Tessa was overreacting.

In the kitchen, Tessa was trying not to listen to Scott, but his voice was loud and the walls of the cottage were thin. She could have gone upstairs or outside once she realized who Scott was talking to, but she was feeling petty and did not think Scott deserved privacy today. She had gone as far as to cook him dinner and he had still refused to even poke his head out of his bedroom, despite the ruckus she had made boiling a pot of water and swearing like a sailor when the jar of alfredo sauce refused to open. She had made one of the few dishes she knew how to expertly cook; which was more than eggs on toast that she so often bragged about, thank you very much. Rosé pasta was a throw back to their Canton years and a favourite cheat meal they both enjoyed. Scott had concocted it one night to cheer up Tessa after a particularly gruelling day of training because it was her favourite colour, not realizing this was a dish that already existed and he could not lay claim to inventing it after all. It was made with the fanciest of ingredients, whole grain pasta tossed with half-alfredo and half-bolognese sauces. 

Tessa made it tonight as a peace offering, but the one person she was trying to make it up to was being insufferably childish and staying away from her. She assumed his phone call had ended as he had been quiet for several minutes. She waited for five more and gave up. Fully irritated now, she dished herself up a generous bowl of pasta and went out onto the back deck to eat it alone.

She was less hungry than her anger induced scooping had indicated and three bites in, she was done. Her body was filled with anxiety. If they couldn’t even be civil with each other tonight, how were they going to make it fourteen days?

Tessa considered puking in the bushes in an attempt to quell her now upset stomach, but her phone buzzing abruptly stopped her worrying thoughts. She chatted with her mother as she moved back inside the cottage and proceeded to scrape her uneaten food into the trash. She packed the leftovers away in the fridge and scrawled out a note to Scott as to where dinner was if he was hungry and to help himself.   
  


Jordan joined in on the call as Tessa made herself a cup of chamomile tea and then wandered upstairs, pausing to look at the closed door to the spare room Scott was occupying. It was the opposite one that she had recommended. It was also the room she usually stayed in and she didn’t really want him in her bed. But there he was anyways. She let out a loud sigh and continued upstairs, lying to her mother and sister as to what the discontented noise was really about, and reiterating how this would be a long fourteen days stuck under one roof with Scott.

  
  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> House rules are created.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading Chapter 1!  
> Not to take away from the importance of current events, but I offer you a brief moment of distraction if you need it.  
> I wish you good health amidst the pandemic and love and solidarity amidst the demonstrations for racial inequality. We are fighting these wars shoulder to shoulder. Black Lives Matter.🖤

Tessa was going to give him until ten that morning. She was truly trying to grant Scott the space he must have felt he needed, but she had been pacing in front of his (her!) closed bedroom door for two straight minutes now and there were forty-three minutes left until her pre-determined wake up call time of ten o’clock, and she was now internally freaking out that perhaps he wasn’t sleeping in or ignoring her, but that he had left sometime during the night through the bedroom window. Her brain was muddled and exhausted and if she was thinking clearly, she might have simply poked her head out the front door of the cottage to see that in fact his truck was right where he parked it the afternoon prior.

But she hadn’t slept much at all last night, tossing and turning and worrying herself into the most frazzled state at how her well laid out plans had been tossed up into the air like a deck of cards and her life was now laid out before her in a chaotic heap of disarray. Tessa paused finally, hand on the doorknob. She hated that he picked her!!! room!!! and that he went against her genuinely thoughtful suggestion. She hated that he ignored her last night and hid in his room, where he likely still was. What kind of ungrateful guest ignores their host like this when said guest potentially infected said host with a very serious virus anyways.

Tessa was working herself up even further and was finally filled with enough rage that she overflowed and turned the doorknob sharply to the right. She pushed the door open with full force, letting it slam into the wall and bounce back towards her. She saw a huge lump under a pile of blankets and let out the breath she was holding before sucking in another lung full, realizing maybe he had crafted an elaborate set up to make it look like he was still in bed ... or worse ... he had expired overnight.

She stood at the foot of the bed, now breathing heavily, finally working up the courage to poke her big toe into the foot-shaped lump closest to her under the blanket. She was relieved to see it move away quickly, and she hastily grabbed the covers and yanked them all off without thinking any further.

“Hey!” Scott grumbled, his face pressed into his pillow.

Tessa stood at the foot of the bed, holding the down duvet and the three other blankets Scott had piled on top to stay warm. She was mildly relieved he was wearing clothes because she hadn’t quite thought through that part of removing his bedding, and she dropped her shoulders, sighing loudly.

“Hey yourself!” she finally responded back, irritated that he hadn’t rolled over to face her yet. “Do you know what time it is and ... why the hell are you still in bed? And why are you wearing so many clothes?”

“Jesus,” Scott huffed into his pillow, still face down on the bed. “That’s a shit load of questions. Since when are you the morning police? Do we have somewhere to be?”

“Very fucking funny,” Tessa snapped back. She let go of the blankets she was holding, dropping them at her feet; she was back to being fuming mad at Scott. “Get up and meet me in the dining room. We have a list of things to discuss.”

Scott moaned his displeasure loudly but several minutes later he gave in, lest Tessa return and physically extricate him. He rolled himself out of bed, dressed in two hooded sweatshirts and two pairs of joggers and four pairs of black socks. He made a not so quick pit stop in the bathroom before joining Tessa in the dining room.

She narrowed her eyes at Scott’s choice of clothing and the length of time it took him to arrive at the table, but said nothing. She pushed a mug of coffee in front of him—made just the way he liked it—along with a pad of paper and a pen. “Were you planning to sleep the entire day away, Moir?”

“I’m so fucking tired, okay? I hardly slept at all last night with the wind whistling through the crack in the bedroom window frame. It was noisy and freezing cold. I had to wear all this to bed and I was still cold!” he grumped, gesturing wildly at his outfit.

Tessa tried to hide the smugness she felt. She had out right offered him the better bedroom and now she felt he should have to suffer with his poor decision; all of his poor decisions. She took a long pull of her now lukewarm coffee before responding. “Well, I’ll have you know that I was up all night and did not sleep either. I started making a list ... policies and procedures, who takes on what roles, house rules, etcetera.”

Scott rolled his eyes once Tessa’s back was towards him. He knew he shouldn’t be surprised that she had made rules. He hoped afternoon naps were on that list because he planned to take one on the deck in the sunshine, irregardless. He watched her retrieve and then open a well-used notebook and flip more than three quarters of the way through to where she had scratched out her ideas. He knew exactly what she would do first, and as her eyes flitted back and forth over the page, Scott smiled. She always had to re-read her notes one last time before presenting ideas to him. Just to throw her off a little, he interrupted her just before she finished reading.

“I had some of the pasta you made last night, thanks by the way. It was really good.”

“Thank you,” she replied, not falling for his trick. She did not lift her eyes to look at Scott until she had finished reading. Tessa got through more than she thought she would before his usual interruption and changing of the subject. “Did you want breakfast before we start, Scott? I ate already, a while ago. Nothing fancy, just cereal,” she offered, leaning into the good host role one last time until she divvied up the work.

Scott shook his head no, and so Tessa began reading through her list, starting with the groceries they had on hand and who would handle the cooking. She had been relieved that her bags were already packed for her trip to Vancouver, and when she stopped at home to pick them up before heading to the cottage, her mom had put together a few bags of essential food items for them to take with. When Tessa reached the part of her list that mentioned having her Hello Fresh meal kits redirected to the cottage, Scott finally spoke up.

“Tessa, for fuck’s sake,” he sighed. “I can cook for us. We don’t need those fucking boxed meals.”

Tessa carefully laid her notebook down on the table. “Scott,” she sighed. “I know that you did not care much for those, but it makes things easy. I did not want you to feel that the recipe planning and cooking was all on you ...”

“Well I’d expect you to help!”

Tessa stared blankly at Scott. “With what? You know I’m horrible in the kitchen!”

“Tee, you’re not and you know it,” he sighed, rubbing his palms against his eyes.

Tessa knew he was sort of right so she let him have the win. She did like it when he stuck up for her and heaped praises on her. She internally gloated for a moment before carrying on through her list.

“I’m fine with it all, just so you know,” Scott said, leaning back in his chair. He had removed both of his sweatshirts and was down to a t-shirt and one pair of pants. “Everything you proposed including the splitting of the cleaning and extending our rink courtesies to the cottage and allowing privacy during phone and video calls is all logical. But If I might add something?”

Tessa nodded and held her breath. She knew it was ridiculous to be worried as to what he could possibly have to offer to her extensive list. She thought she had covered all the bases.

“We just have fun, you know, make the best of the situation?”

Tessa stared blankly. Could you define fun, she asked Scott silently with her eyes and offered up a quick prayer to anyone that may be listening that she wasn’t really in the mood for anything too wildly fun.

He sensed she didn’t quite get what he meant. “Get along and shit. Laugh, let things be simple ... kinda like old times? Maybe try communicating off-ice for once?”

Tessa relaxed her shoulders at his suggestion. She could most certainly try to do those things. She desperately missed the old days, just them, alone in a grubby hockey rink. Hand in hand with nothing but one last run at Olympic gold in front of them. She nodded, a smile cracking her current steely facade. “Alright, you’ve got yourself a deal, Moir.”

* * *

Scott had watched three Tiger King episodes in a row while lying on the couch in the living room. Tessa had refused to watch with him, opting to sit curled up in the sunroom with a new book, and tuning out his choice in entertainment. He could feel his back muscles protesting a fourth episode without some sort of movement, so he stretched backwards over the arm of the couch.

“Tee, I’m bored of watching Netflix,” he whined.

“Why don’t you go for a walk?” she mumbled without looking up, hoping he would take the subtle hint that she wasn’t wanting to talk to or entertain him.

“Nah,” he stretched his arms back further and felt a nice crack in his spine in just the right spot.

“Help yourself to a book then,” she offered, pointing the spine of her own book towards the bookcase in the corner of the sunroom.

Scott sighed loudly but sat up and looked towards the bookshelf anyways. It was crammed full of books, every inch of space being utilized. He did see a few titles he could probably read but decided he didn’t want to give her the satisfaction of winning at curing his boredom, even though he had asked her to. He was feeling salty like that at the moment.

“Are you ignoring me?” he prodded.

Tessa hummed an irritated reply.

“I would like to remind you of your Covid rule number twenty-three: communication.”

“Scott, I’m trying to read. I’m not here to entertain you or communicate anything to you other than ‘I’m busy’.”

“You did insist we isolate here, Tee. You shouldn’t ignore me. I’m not sure it’s good for my mental health.”

That’s it! He fucking ignored me last night and now when I do it he gets mad, she growled internally. “Scott, where else did you want to go?” she snapped. Tessa was exasperated at this point. Needless talking about their quarantine wasn’t going to change the fact they were stuck together.

“Maybe my house would have been better after all? You know, we’re acting like an old married couple,” he scoffed, knowing full well he was pushing all of her buttons and riling her up, but kinda annoyed she was leaning away from instead of into the conversation. She really wasn’t in the mood to talk.

“No,” Tessa insisted without hesitation. “No. We’re an old divorced couple with irreconcilable differences.”

With that, she shoved her bookmark into her book, stood up, and marched out of the sunroom and upstairs to her bedroom. She hated this tension between them that constantly flared up. Without the ice time, they seemed to only be capable of short interactions before one of them, usually her, had to leave to defuse the ticking time bomb. They had years of repressed issues that kept resurfacing and she knew they should probably deal with everything but it was somehow easier to walk away than start a yelling match. Mostly because she was worried what they would do after the yelling. If they laid all their issues out on the proverbial table and hashed out every single one of them, then what? Would they be able to repair their friendship? Or more? Or would it drive a further wedge between them? Mostly she felt it was simply easier to close the book on them and place their remnants high upon a shelf and look forwards in life rather than deal with all the unanswered what if’s. Unless being locked up with Scott for two weeks was the universe’s way of telling her they needed to deal with all of this rather than shelve their relationship?

Tessa knew she had to stop thinking about things, it was just spinning her in circles and she needed a distraction. She pulled out her laptop from her bag and then texted Morgan from her phone. She checked the time and figured he must be at his Vancouver home by now. Sure enough, he replied to her message with a photo of himself making a pouty lip. She replied back that she was available to FaceTime and wanted to talk.

He had been quite upset yesterday that she was unable to fly with him this morning to Vancouver, and she hoped he was feeling better now. It certainly wasn’t ideal for her to cancel, but she planned to fly out after her quarantine was done, if she didn’t get sick, and join Morgan then. She grinned at her boyfriend as his face appeared on her computer screen. “I miss you already, Morgy.”

“I miss you too, baby,” he sighed.

She hated the term baby, but hadn’t quite had the heart to tell Morgan that his choice of a term of endearment was like nails on a chalkboard. She was no one’s baby, except her mother’s.

Morgan dominated the conversation, giving Tessa the condensed version of the conversations he and Alex had during their flight west. She found it cute at first, but most of what he was talking about went over her head and the lack of sleep was catching up with her.

Tessa wasn’t sure when exactly she stopped listening and started snoring, but she was pretty sure it was somewhere around Morgan excitedly discussing his home workout routine that was given to him. Something about rollerblading and ordering a stationary bike for his home gym. She woke up to the sun setting and a dry mouth, her computer now asleep. The call must have ended at some point and when she found her phone under her left calf, she saw three text messages from her boyfriend. One laughing at her for falling asleep, one telling her she was snoring loudly but it was kinda cute, and the third telling her he would try calling her later that evening. Morgan hadn’t even given Tessa the chance to explain why she was so tired, not that it mattered much now anyways.

* * *

“Well look who we have here,” Scott said with a huge grin on his face. “Five-time Olympic medalist, Tessa Virtue with what appears to be bed head and face creases. Those do help with aerodynamics on the ice?”

“Don’t,” she snapped back and then regretted it. Scott had been right that morning, they should try to have fun. “Sorry, Scott. I’m just not in the mood.”

Scott didn’t want to poke the bear any further, as she was most certainly Ms Cranky-pants. “Did you sleep?”

“Some. You?” she asked with a yawn.

“Enough to tide me over until rum and coke time ... unless you don’t have any?” This was the first time alcohol had come up in conversation, it hadn’t been top of mind during their big meeting that morning.

Tessa tipped her chin towards the kitchen cabinet opposite where she was perched on a chair at the eating bar. Scott followed, well-versed in Tessa’s frequent use of non-verbal directions. Mornings were hard for her and he knew that the only thing harder was the brief brain fog she had after a mid-day nap.

Scott whistled long and low as he perused the liquor cabinet’s offerings. “Kate goes all out, eh?”

“I think the boys left most of that here at some point. Or Jordan. You know how Mom sticks to her Rieslings or sherry.”

“Well we’ll certainly be kept good and watered for the next fourteen days,” Scott chuckled. “Alcohol to cleanse our insides so we don’t have to eat soap ... hey, we can take turns being bartender, maybe both of us could learn some new cocktail recipes?”

Tessa softened. Scott was always about equality between them and she did love that about him. She was mulling over whether or not she should tell him, and risk it sounding like a silly compliment.

“I can see by your face you would rather not try your hand at any recipes? I wish you’d stop putting yourself down, Tee. You’re not as inept as you keep bragging about. You can follow a recipe just fine. Here, peel the skins off these for me,” he insisted, dropping a handful of garlic cloves on the counter next to a cutting board and knife.

“Most of the time,” Tessa mumbled, blushing a little that he caught her thinking, but it wasn’t what he thought it was about.

“Virtch, nobody said this has to be the cooking Olympics.”

Her eyebrows jumped as she paused, the pesky garlic clove jumping out of her fingers and rolling onto the floor.

“Is that a thing?” she asked, far too excited than one should be about such an idea.

“Fuck if I know. Why? You wanna team up?”

Tessa felt her cheeks pinking up again. She craved that feeling they used to have; the two of them alone in a grubby hockey rink and an ungodly hour of the morning, creating art and laughing and leaving the bulk of their differences in the same place as their skate guards. She wanted to go back to the moments she held close to her heart; always one last time.

Scott bent down to retrieve the garlic and tossed it into the trash can. “I think we best leave that to those with twenty plus years of culinary training. Besides Virtue and Moir are a retired team, eh?”

“Right,” she nodded, biting her teeth down into her lip at the reminder.

* * *

The Cajun shrimp and rice Scott made for dinner was far from fancy, but it was certainly better than the eggs on toast or broiled chicken Tessa was thinking she would offer to cook for him. She felt the urge to compete, despite Scott softly shooting that down earlier, and she vowed to search online for at least two new dishes that were easy enough and that used the ingredients they had on hand to make dinner tomorrow night and a complimenting cocktail.

“Busy day tomorrow?” Scott deadpanned, pulling Tessa out of her thoughts.

Tessa laughed loudly. Scott out of anybody knew when she was subtly worried or over-thinking something. “Yes and no, but mostly no.”

Scott grinned, pleased with himself for making her laugh and content that she seemed to be in better spirits than earlier.

In true Tessa fashion, she redirected the conversation and changed the subject without really answering Scott. “Where did you learn to make this? It’s really good ... I thought it would be spicy but the flavours are quite balanced.”

Scott raised an eyebrow at Tessa. “You talk like you’ve been a judge on a cooking show or something.”

“Ha ha, very funny, Moir. You could have been on it too, don’t forget.”

That shut him up. He focused on pushing the little pink shrimp around on his plate. He didn’t want to discuss what would later be known to them as their dark time. He took the opportunity to answer her question, knowing full well it would ruffle her feathers, so to speak. “One of Jackie’s friends gave me the recipe.”

Tessa put down her fork on the edge of her plate. She was no longer hungry and now mad at herself for asking where he had picked up this very southern type of dish. Of course it was from his time in Florida. “I could use that drink now,” she said in reply.

Scott looked at Tessa’s nearly empty plate, knowing if he had not been so petty, she would have nearly licked it clean. She had inhaled her dinner twice as fast as she normally did. To smooth things over, he suggested something unmistakably Tessa. “I saw some chocolate liqueur at the back of the liquor cabinet. I bet we can find a recipe online for something you’d like?”

Her eyes lit up like a child’s at Christmas. “I’ll grab my phone and see what we can make!”

* * *

Scott jumped at the knock on his bedroom door, he hadn’t expected her after they had parted ways about an hour ago. They had one chocolate martini each, missing half the ingredients to make it taste well enough for a second. He had taken a long hot shower after Tessa begged off, muttering something about checking in with her boyfriend again.

“Entrez vous,” Scott called out in a faux French accent as he dug through his suitcase looking for anything cleanish to wear. He knew he would have to ask Tessa about laundry in the morning. He had no idea if she had facilities here or if he would be hand washing everything in the tub. He paused as he heard the door open, a moderately fresh-smelling pair of joggers in his hand.

“I think you mean, entrez s'il vous plaît?” She offered, correcting his French, but then noticed that Scott was wearing only a pair of grey boxers (how could she not, his peach still looked good, as per Twitter at least) and she averted her eyes down towards the towel she was clutching between her fingers.

“You need somethin’, Tee?”

Tessa opened and closed her mouth twice as Scott started sniffing t-shirts. After several minutes of watching his back muscles flex in ways she had almost forgotten they could, she finally found her voice. “I brought a towel.”

“Thanks...I guess? But there were plenty in the bathroom on the shelf, right where you said they’d be?” Scott was confused why he would now need a towel; after he already showered.

He pulled a shirt on over his head and turned around to face her, noticing right away how her fingers twitched against the terrycloth material, and losing his breath at her choice of sleep attire. The shortest of cotton shorts and the tightest of t-shirts accentuating her abdominal muscles and nipples. Both were in a blue that was too similar to the Toronto Maple Leafs home jersey to be coincidental. Unless it was for Nivea? He sort of hoped the latter, but knowing she had packed her suitcases with the intention of spending the next two weeks with her NHL hockey boyfriend, he strongly assumed the former. He clenched his jaw while he waited for Tessa to talk, or move, or do something. Scott grew slightly irritated, knowing full well that Tessa was internally agonizing over something. He had to break the ice. “Are you sleeping over?”

“What?” Tessa gasped. “No!” she insisted vehemently, her brain and body finally kicking into motion. She took wide strides across the bedroom towards the window, rolled the towel up and laid it tight against the bottom of the window frame. “I have to do this when I sleep in here ... I usually sleep in here, I mean. The windows are on the list to be replaced this summer ...” Her voice drifted off as she kept her back to Scott. Tessa continued pressing her fingers into the towel, making sure it was firmly in place, even though she knew it already was. The tense feeling was back and she didn’t know why it kept creeping up on her.

“Uh, thanks,” Scott quietly said, pushing the fingers on both hands through his hair. “So, this is your room?” Now her insistence for him to take the other bedroom made sense to him and he wished he could unlearn that bit of information and that he had listened to her in the first place and taken the bedroom she recommended.

Tessa turned quickly, avoiding eye contact with him. “Good night, Scott,” she whispered, swiftly making her exit before he could ask any more questions.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A family member stops by with groceries

Scott woke up the next morning to a rather large problem. He had dreamt about Tessa all night; knowing he was sleeping in her room (and her bed!) had really played with his mind. They didn’t really speak in his dreams, but she was close to him. So close he could hear her soft, steady breathing and smell that Poison perfume shit she had been wearing lately. He had trouble describing it, but to him it was sweet and musky and vanilla-y, but whatever it was, it drove him mad and Tessa knew it. She had re-applied it three times yesterday. He also recalled watching her, not in a creepy way, but like in a captivated way that he would stare and ponder a painting in a museum. He would occasionally extend a finger to run it along her bare, freckled arm or down her equally freckled cheek or nose. She had her original nose in his dreams. Always. He didn’t know why, but that was one constant. It had been months since he had dreamt of her, but he figured being in close proximity most of yesterday had triggered it and he wondered if this would be a nightly occurrence.

Of course, the more he recounted his dreams, the harder he became. Scott knew if he wrapped his hand around his naked, throbbing cock, he could bring himself relief within seconds (he was that close) but he felt uneasy about cumming all over her white sheets. He had shed all of his clothes part way through the night, figuring Tessa had jacked the heat up on his behalf, or maybe he did have Covid and was having feverish night sweats. He wasn’t fully sure the reason, but Tessa stuffing that towel against the crack in the window frame certainly hadn’t warmed up his bedroom that much.

Scott rolled out of bed and hobbled towards the bedroom door, his stiff cock painfully bouncing with each step. He slowly opened the door and was about to move swiftly down the hall towards the bathroom, when he heard Tessa’s voice in the kitchen, which he had to walk right past to reach his destination. He absolutely could not let her see him like this. Her eagle eyes would for sure see him; they were still acutely aware of the other’s movements and presence. Scott shut the door quietly and leaned against it, contemplating which article of his clothing he was going to jerk off into.

* * *

“You’re up early,” Scott announced as he sauntered into the kitchen a good half hour later. He gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze with one hand and carried on towards the coffee machine. He wasn’t sure what to make of her now being an early bird instead of a late owl ... or why the switch. His brain was thinking so loudly, he didn’t even hear her reply, telling him about how Kate was organizing a grocery list and someone to drive the food out to them. She rattled off the items on the list and told him it was time sensitive to fit with everyone’s schedules, and how she was working on it last night but fell asleep mid-way through and did he want to add anything.

When Scott didn’t reply, she called out his name, snapping him out of his thoughts. He turned to look over his shoulder at her and raised one eyebrow.

“Was there anything else?” she asked again, in a different way.

Scott realized he had not heard whatever she said before that and his lack of listening was not a good start to their day. They had ended yesterday on a flow and now they were about to ebb.

Tessa saw his face scrunch up slightly and she immediately knew that Scott hadn’t heard her - she assumed all of it. “Why do you always tune me out?” She knew her accusation was a broad statement and not completely true, but she was already stressed out about finalizing the list and frustrated at the situation they were in, fully dependent on others to take care of their needs.

“I don’t!” Scott snapped back, irritated at her saying something that was not true. He always listened to her on the ice, it was only off the ice that he sometimes was hard of hearing.

Tessa sighed loudly. “Well we’ll have to agree to disagree and just move on. Mom wanted the list last night and she’s texted me twice and called once already this morning.”

Scott nodded and tried to focus on the words leaving Tessa’s mouth as she quickly read through the grocery list again. He had her add baker’s yeast and flour, he wanted to show off a few sweet tricks he had picked up in the last few months, and Tessa fired the list off to Kate.

“So ... I guess your brother is driving the stuff over later today,” Tessa mumbled as she read out loud the immediate text message back from her mom.

“Great,” Scott huffed as he marched out of the kitchen, his coffee mug in hand. “Just what I fucking need, him laying into me again.” 

Tessa rolled her eyes as she heard a door loudly close and poured herself another mug full of coffee. She felt Scott deserved Charlie‘s big-brother wrath at his decision making skills, although Danny had always been worse at ragging on Scott than Charlie. Little did she know both brothers had been laying it on thick for months.

* * *

Scott returned to the cottage kitchen within the hour; he had taken a walk outside to calm himself down. Kicking the gravel on the road and swearing out loud at the sky helped a bit. He may have also smashed his coffee mug on a fence post, but don’t tell Kate - it was one of her favorites.

“I need to do laundry, Tee,” he announced as he walked in through the patio door.

Tessa looked up from her computer where she had been unsuccessfully attempting a math equation. She had some upgrading to do before her MBA started in August but it was hard to focus while she was worried about where Scott had disappeared to. “We have a washer and dryer here,” she nodded. “But only if you give me a hand later with this math?”

“Think I can afford your rate.” Scott smirked at the sad look of defeat on her face. He knew math wasn’t her favourite but that she had it in her to figure it out.

Tessa stood up and followed Scott into his room as she chattered somewhat nervously about the brand of laundry soap Kate kept here and how she knew it wasn’t the one he preferred. The overpowering musky smell hit her as she entered Scott’s (her!) bedroom and stopped her talking mid-sentence. She knew that distinctive scent all too well and she wondered who he was thinking of while he got himself off that morning. Tessa assumed his fiancée, but secretly hoped it was herself. She had chosen her skimpiest pair of pyjamas last night on purpose, and maybe they had worked after all. To achieve what exactly, she wasn’t sure. Yes, she had let Scott go but that didn’t mean she wanted anyone else to have him, however fucked up that sounded to everyone but her.

“Tess?” he called out a second time. His less sensitive nose hadn’t noticed the odor lingering in the room, his still wet sweatshirt lying on the floor next to his suitcase.

“Sorry?”

“I’m really not that fussy about the soap. I just don’t want to rewear my boxers for a third time.”

That shut her up as her cheeks pinked up slightly, assuming they were soiled with his cum. “Door next to the bathroom, machine’s inside, all you need is on the shelf above. I should probably check if Mom texted again about the groceries.”

With that she disappeared, leaving Scott to wonder why all of a sudden she was shy talking about underwear.

* * *

Charlie showed up mid-afternoon with nine bags of groceries and a weighted brow. Tessa had met him out front, making sure to stay on the porch and him on the grass. They chatted for several minutes, Charlie point blank asking her if Scott was being an ass. Tessa admitted things were somewhat tense but it had been worse between them before, and she lightheartedly added that she was fairly certain they could make it to day fourteen without one of them running off or smothering the other.

Tessa was fidgety in Scott’s absence; she knew he had to have heard the loud honking of Charlie’s truck horn, just as she had from upstairs in her bedroom. She didn’t want to be making phoney excuses for Scott, that wasn’t her job anymore, but as she started to apologize for Scott ignoring his brother, he showed up at the door, leaning against the frame, the screen door propped open by his socked foot.

“Long time no see, asshole,” Charlie said with the straightest face he could muster; a grin still twitching at the corners of his mouth.

Scott scoffed loudly. “I saw your ugly face two weeks ago in Florida!”

“I’d give you the noogie you deserve, but the government has forbidden me to get close enough,” Charlie joked.

Tessa loved their familial banter. She had missed Charlie, he had always been like an older brother to her as well, but the protective kind and nothing like her relationship with Scott.

“I have to head back to town, shift starts soon, but you take care of each other and don’t eat all this food tonight, eh?” Scott’s brother had a career as a fireman and a wife and gaggle of kids. All things Scott lacked and would be eternally jealous over until he could tick those boxes. Just four more months and he’d have a wife, that was a start.

Scott nodded as he stepped out onto the porch beside Tessa and squeezed the back of her neck with his hand. Charlie noticed and raised an eyebrow at the pair. Tessa noticed Charlie’s expression, his was identical to the way Scott did it, before she realized Scott’s hand was on her. She flinched and moved a step to the side, Scott’s hand falling away. Tessa wanted no one assuming anything. This cohabitation would be nothing more than platonic. At least that was what she kept reminding herself. Charlie wondered how many days the two could refrain from some sort of physical intimacy. His wife had bet twenty bucks on breaking by day eight and he bet his twenty on day five. Danny on day three and his wife put her money on day twelve. Alma refused to participate and get her hopes up, she would accept any sort of friendship at this point. Joe told them to smarten up, Scott is engaged and has chosen a life with Jackie. The family laughed and put Joe down for day ten.

“Why do you look like the cat that ate the canary, eh?” Scott asked Charlie after a moment of somewhat awkward silence between the three.

“No reason,” Charlie replied, straightening his shoulders back. “Tess, if he’s being a brat, let one of the Moirs know and we’ll come straighten him out, eh?”

While Tessa appreciated Charlie’s concern, she knew she could handle herself and whatever Scott could throw at her. She’d had twenty-two years of Scott being, well, Scott. Two weeks would nearly be a walk in the park. Or so she hoped.

After Charlie had gone, Scott helped Tessa collect the bags his brother had deposited on the grass for them, and they carried them into the kitchen.

“Think you can spare a lemon?” Scott asked as he pulled six from the bag he was unpacking.

Tessa shrugged her shoulders and nodded, assuming he wanted some in his tea later.

“I’ll make you lemon chicken for dinner?” Scott suggested, holding up a package of chicken breasts he had pulled from the grocery bag.

Her eyes grew wide and lit up, he had never made that for her before but anything lemon was presumed delicious in her books, regardless of how or with whom he received this recipe. Maybe being quarantined with Scott wouldn’t be so bad after all. He seemed to have expanded his cooking knowledge tenfold since they last shared a kitchen, and she at least would leave their isolation well-fed. She couldn’t say the same for her boyfriend. He was a horrible cook, and had whined to her last night that his Mom would have to bring him some home-cooked meals or else he might starve to death. Tessa told him he was being dramatic and immature and sent him a link to the meal kit service - hers was arriving for tomorrow night’s dinner.

* * *

While the chicken was baking in the oven, Scott provided moral support for Tessa as she worked on her math assignment. Just as Scott assumed, she didn’t really need his help, and he picked up on that immediately. He heaped praises and words of encouragement on her the way they used to on the ice, he was sure that’s all she was looking for. 

Tessa appreciated cheerleader Scott, but what she liked more was that he was being nice to her and giving her his undivided attention. She had noticed when he stepped out onto the porch earlier to say hi to his brother, that his phone was not in its usual spot in his front pant pocket. She kept sneaking looks at him to be sure; after three studious exams and seven quick glances, she was nearly one hundred percent sure. There had to be a reason for it, but she didn’t know why. When Jackie was apart from Scott, his phone had to be glued to his body, lest she need something and he did not reply to her text message or phone call immediately. Tessa wouldn’t know what that was like, Scott rarely was prompt in replying to her messages.

“Eyes up top, Virtch,” Scott whispered next to her ear. He wasn’t sure why she kept turning her head slightly to look at his crotch but it was starting to make his dick twitch at the thought of Tessa taking notice of his free flowing package while all of his underwear was being washed and dried.

“Sorry.” And she was, she hadn’t meant to pry into his personal business. Maybe his fiancée was at work. Her stomach flip flopped as the word fiancée danced in her mind again. 

“Dinner is ready anyways.”

Tessa watched as Scott bent over the oven to remove their chicken dish and a pan of roasted Brussel sprouts. She had helped with both parts of the meal under Scott’s direction and her praise bucket truly felt full for today. Scott had lavished her with the encouraging words she needed in the kitchen too, and of course she did in return. Both to the point that an outsider would have rolled their eyes and told the pair to stop the nauseating niceties.   
  


* * *

Scott’s suggestion for an evening cocktail was a bottle of Okanagan Icewine he had found in the liquor cabinet earlier that day. As he stood in front of the bookcase, sipping his wine in disgust, he knew neither of them were going to be getting wasted tonight. Probably for the best, who knows what guards they may let down with alcohol coursing through their veins.

“I think ours tastes better.”

Once upon a time Scott would have known exactly what she was referring to, but that was no longer the case. He turned around and looked blankly at Tessa. He watched her frown slightly and then raise her glass.

“This Icewine. Ontario makes better,” she insisted, taking a sip and swishing it around in her mouth with great panache.

“Oh,” he chuckled and nodded his head, not that he had any idea. Icewine wasn’t something he drank on the regular, in fact he couldn’t even remember if he’d had it before, even though he had. It was the name that caught his attention. He missed skating.

“Did you know they let the grapes freeze right on the vine?” Tessa mused out loud. “It has to go down to minus eight or colder before they can be harvested.”

Scott did not, and he really didn’t care, but he nodded his head anyways.

She noticed he hadn’t taken more than three polite sips. “Do you not like it? Too sweet?”

Scott held up his wine and let the light catch the glass and bounce through the syrupy liquid. “Not exactly what I was expecting, I guess,” he admitted, setting his glass down on the table. He figured he would grab a beer later from the fridge outside in the shed that she had mentioned. He had to go out for a smoke anyways.

“Did you want something else?” 

She was halfway to a standing position when he waved at her to sit. He wandered back over to the bookcase and grabbed a deck of cards that had been lying on the upper shelf.

“Twenty-one?” he offered, knowing it would only go a few rounds and they would just end up building a house out of the cards.

She nodded with a grin.

  
  
  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the hits, kudos, and comments!


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